Swimming pool



y 9, 3- w. H. EICHELMAN ET AL 1,908,332

- SWIMMING POOL Filed May 4,1951 ZSheets-Sheet, l

Zaa/nbzmw/zmmzmu y QZiorheu y 9, 1933. w. H. EICHELMAN ET AL 308332 SWIMMING POOL Filed May 4, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 m 4 and zmzjzw (Zita/neg Patented May 9, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM H. EICHELMAN AND ERIC E. HALL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS SWIMMING POOL Application filed May 4, 1931.

Our present invention relates to improvements in swimming pools. erally recognized that it is desirable to provide a swimming pool having a depth of water at one end to permit of safe diving, which has been found to require a water depth of approximately eleven feet, and to slope the bottom of the pool from one end, where the diving depth of water is provided, upwardly to the other end of the pool where the smimmers can stand without being submerged.

The construction of such a pool is an expensive operation for side walls of a depth of eleven feet and more must be of a heavy retaining wall character to support the thrust of the surrounding earth when the water i removed from the pool for cleaning and while the pool is out of use during the inclement seasons. Free and unobstructed swimming can be had at a much less depth than eleven feet, or thereabouts,

, desirable for diving, and the enlargement of the deep or diving area of a pool increases the danger area except for diving.

It has been our object to provide a swimming pool which will have a diving area of requisite depth and extent but which will be much less expensive to construct. We

I have also had in mind the rendering of the diving area less hazardous to inexperienced swimmers and in case of accident by providing around the deep area at a distance within easy reach of the bottoma pathway upon which the swimmer may readily climb or stand and be in perfect safety.

It is not infrequently desired to decorate swimming pools by covering their sides with marble-like compositions, and as it will hereafter be seen, by employing the cast panel side walls hereinafter described, the marblelike surfacing may be secured easily and economically, which is well nigh impossible to secure w1th vertical walls of such dimension that the same have to be poured or cast in the position they are to ultimately occupy. It will, moreover, be seen that with our construction such refinements as the securing of facilities for skimming the pool and the anchoring of surrounding pathways It is now gen- Serial No. 534,764.

thereto may be secured with little, if any, additional expense.

\Ve attain the foregoing objects and results by means of the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is a plan of a swimming pool embodyirig. our invention Fig. 2 is a longitudinal central section, on line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmental detail to an enlarged scale showing the assembly of a side wall panel with the bottom and also illustrating the feed, skimmer drain and pathway anchoring fittings;

Fig. 4 is a top plan of the side wall illustrated in Fig. 3; 1

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section through the side walls shown in Figs. 3 and 4; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmental detail of a juncture between side wall panels before the bonding material has been introduced.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the respective views.

The bottom 10 of our swimming pool can advantageously be made of poured concrete, the same as is now generally done in building swimmin pools, but instead of sloping the wall gra ually from a diving depth at one end of the pool upwardly to a swimming or wading depth at the other end of the pool, the bottom or floor of our pool slopes but little from one end to the other thereof. Some slight slope may-be advantageously retained throughout the major portion of the floor of our swimming pool to secure a complete emptying of the pool when the water is drawn oflf, but if such a slope or inclination is retained it is so slight as to be structurally of no importance.

Spaced from one end and the sides of the pool is an angular or inclined depression 11. The angle or angles of the walls of this depression from the vertical is or are such, with reference to the character of the earth underlying the pool, as to maintain such underlying earth in stable condition. That is, the angle or angles of the depression 11 of our pool is or are such as to eliminate any thrust inwardly from the underlying earth when the pool is emptied of Water for clean ing or for any other reason; The spacing of the depression 11 from the end and side walls of the pool provides a submerged platform or platforms 12 around the pool, which platform or platforms are easily attained and mounted by any swimmer in the depression. Around the floor or bottom of the entire pool is formed a depressed channel 13 in which may advantageously be cast uniformly spaced dowels 14.

By providing a bottom or floor for the pool, as above described, the side walls are so reduced in height that instead of building forms and casting these side walls in position, they may be advantageously and economically formed of plates or panels cast or otherwise formed in a factory and shipped to and installed on the job. A suitable and desirable form of panel for providing such vertical walls is shown in Figs. 3 to 6 inclusive. They consist of a plate 15 having extending from their rear faces one or more vertical reinforcing webs or buttresses 16. The plate 15 has provided integrally therewith an enlarged foot or base 17 of a size to fit in the depressed channel 13 of the bottom, and an enlarged top 18. In the top 18 of the panel is provided the skimming gutter 19, the forward edge 20 of which is slightly below the top of the panel. The outer upper corner of the panel is channeled, as at 21, and in the bottom of the channel 21 is advantageously cast hooks 22 which serve the double purpose of providing means for handling the panels while they are being placed in position and anchors for the slabs 23 of the pathway surrounding the pool. In the vertical end edges of the panels are provided vertical channels 24 for receiving suitable expansion material 25 and into which is poured a concrete bond 26. Such a construction permits the use of projecting horizontal reinforcing rods 27 which should be slightly bent or laid obliquely with respect to the horizontal so that the projecting ends of the rods will lie in staggered relation within the vertical channels 24. 7

One or more of such side wall plates should be provided with fittings 28 to which the feed pipe is attached for filling the pool and drain fittings 29 for draining the water from the skimming gutters 19. The main drain or drains for the pool are more advantageously provided in the bottom of the depression 11, as shown at 30 in Figs. 1 and 2.

,The skimming of the pool is accomplished by admitting water-through the fittings 28 until the water spillsoverthe edge 20 into the gutter 19, which simple operation is all that is required for freeing the pool from all oily or fatty exudations from the body 1 and other floating foreign elements which may get into the pool.

By constructing a swimming pool as herein illustrated and described, a pool may be secured which may be used similarly to an ordinary pool but which is much safer and may be much easier decorated at a very substantial saving both in labor and material.

Having described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A swimming pool comprising monolithic material constructed to provide a floor, an end wall and side walls extending from said floor, said floor having a depressed portion forming a diving area, the perimeter of said diving area being spaced from and joined with said walls, the joining portion providing a safety platform located at the perimeter of the depressed portion exteriorly of said diving area.

2. A swimming pool comprising a monolithic body of material having a floor and an integral circumferential wall extending from said floor, the floor having a depressed portion providing a diving area, the dimension of the opening of the diving area being less than the dimension of the space internally of said wall to form a laterally projecting safety platform at the perimeter of said depression, said platform extending from and joining the perimeter of the depressed portion to the base of said wall and located without said diving area.

3. A swimming pool comprising a monolithic body having a floor, an integral circumferential wall extending from said floor, the floor having a depressed portion forming a diving area, the walls of the diving area being inclined in substantially all directions from the point of greatest depth to said floor, the perimeter of said diving area being spaced from said circumferential wall and being joined with said wall by an integral peripheral portion providing a safety platform located exteriorly of said area.

4. A swimming pool comprising monolithic material constructed to provide a floor, an end wall and side walls extending from said floor, said floor having a depressed portion forming a diving area, a. footing for said wall providing a safety platform arranged transversely of said side and end walls at the lower termination of said walls, said transverse portion extending from and joining the perimeter of the depressed por-,

tion with the lower termination of said walls. 7

ERIC E. HALL. WILLIAM H. EICHELMAN. 

